Pumpkins!

So, today I realized I hadn't loaded our pumkin carving pics from last week....I am so good to take pictures and then I have such a hard time remembering to download them. That is probably why my camera has pictures on it from early June still!!!!

Anyway, back to pumkins. So, sadly, this is our first year carving pumpkins with the kids. Previous years Chris was either out of town, or I was big and pregnant, or we were swamped with a new business....but this year, it was perfect! Chris was here, I am NOT pregnant (and won't be anymore) and we are all just havin' a bit more spare time to be together. And the kids are actually old enough to know what is going on. Unfortunately, little Drew missed all the action, cause he was so sleepy, he was already in bed asleep when we started carving.

So, first...our cute little pumpkins, from the local pumkin patch. Which of course I forgot the card in my camera at so we really didn't get any of our own pictures. Thank goodness Sarah had her camera and we did get a couple of shots of the family.

Then to the backyard for the opening of pumkins......

Continuing to work on pumpkins! Mitch was very impressed that we let him use a little pumpkin carving knife.

The finished product! The pumkins are a bit scary, but I think the scariest part of this picture is that Mitch is holding the box of matches! Eeeeck! How did that happen!

We moved the pumkins to the front step, and lit them up. This is a picture of one of them as we sat on the steps, with the pumpkins turned facing us (pumkins facing the house), and we ate popcorn. Turning the pumkins to look at us was Amelia's idea. She insisted that if we were going to eat our popcorn on the step, that we had to look at the pumkins at the same time. It was actually quite fun hanging out in the dark with 3 glowing faces looking at us. Maybe it is our new family tradition!

Happy Halloween!

Snow! And a few cute kids....

So we had our first big snow storm this last weekend. The kids thought it was GREAT! Mitch is such a little penguin that I could hardly keep a coat on him, much less gloves...so don't think we are bad parents! I am hoping we get enough snow this winter to replace the kiddie pool!

Mitch....having a blast!

Drew didn't play in the snow...but he did do a little pose for us wearing a hat. Isn't he just the cutest thing? We think so.....

And since I am posting photos, I had to throw in a few cute shots of the boys. For some reason we caught a few good ones recently....now we just have to try to get a few good ones of Amelia.

The love of a kiddie pool

This summer, I do not know how we would have survived without the beloved kiddie pool. Or I guess I should say, how would Mitch have survived? The boy just loves the thing, rain or shine, hot or cool, his favorite activity was to go crazy with the pool and the water hose. And his favorite water is the icy cold stuff straight from the faucet. So today, as summer is starting to feel a little more fallish, I realized we did not have any video of my favorite stunt of his in the kiddie pool, so I decided not only to record, but to share. These kids change so fast and we all know that by next spring Mitch will be on to different antics and the move will be lost forever. Now, I wonder what we are going to replace the kiddie pool with this winter????

Preschool already?

So Amelia started preschool last week.

She was so cute and all ready to go to school. It is so scary how fast these little ones grow up!

Montanta, oh how we love you!

Okay, really we just really love the PARTAINS!

What a fun time we had spending the Labor Day weekend with Tammy, Seth, Isaac and Silas!

Amelia teaching Isaac a few desirable stunts!

Uncle Seth teaching Isaac and Amelia the benefits of electronic gadgets (ipods no less).

Can Drew's legs really be that much longer? I know this isn't the greatest picture, but the point is to show the difference in these two little boys. I mean Drew is 4 weeks YOUNGER than Silas and yet I think his legs are 4 inches longer!

BEST OF ALL MY BIRTHDAY!

And one of the best parts of my weekend....my birthday! And even better was getting to celebrate with the gang! It was 9 years ago that I think I last got to spend my birthday with Tammy & Seth!

The kids are really lovin' all 34 candles on that delicious cake! Talk about a fire hazard!

Sleep Over!

We had a 2 night sleep over with Bryn and Aleksia while their mom and dad took a well deserved 10th anniversary trip! 5 kiddos all ages 4 and under was busy but a lot of fun! Of course...this was the best picture I could get of 4 of 5 at once, and it still isn't great thanks to Amelia's sadness about something. Over all, the kids all did great, they played hard, slept soundly and all just enjoyed the weekend.

And at one point, we even had a princess ball going on. Notice how the girls rotate the dresses around.

Mitch also tried to get in on some of the action....but over all wasn't terriably interested. He just wanted to tackle the girls.

Paint!

Yes, we finally painted the house! Well, okay, we didn't actually do the painting, but we picked the colors, does that count for anything???

I know, you are all so sad to see the beautiful teal paint gone. I mean after 7+ years, who wouldn't miss it.....